Interview with Sid Lezak

This is the complete interview by Robert Benjamin with former US Attorney and mediator Sid Lezak shortly before his death as part of Mediate.com's "The Mediators: Views from the Eye of the Storm" Series.

Biography

Sid Lezak was a long-serving U.S. Attorney for Oregon who had for the past 20 years dedicated his career to furthering creative and constructive dispute resolution, particularly mediation. Sid was a leading mediator in the Pacific Northwest and was widely regarded as the father of mediation in Oregon. Sid was the first Chair of the Oregon Dispute Resolution Commission and was an active fellow in the International Academy of Mediators.

Sid was of counsel to the law firm Newcomb, Sabin, Schwartz & Landsverk since 1982. From 1961 to 1982, he served as United States Attorney for Oregon. He was a partner in the firm of Bailey, Lezak, Swink and Gates specializing in labor law and trials prior to his nomination as U.S. Attorney by President Kennedy.

Most of his professional activities since 1982 involved mediation and facilitation of disputes in all fields except domestic relations. He lectured extensively and taught courses in dispute resolution at Northwestern School of Law, Lewis and Clark Collegeand Willamette University Law School. He has received numerous awards for his work in encouraging mediation. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Ninth Circuit Judicial Council, President of the Oregon chapter, and chaired various committees of the Federal Bar Association and Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution.

In 1987 he was appointed by Governor Neil Goldschmidt to chair the Oregon Dispute Resolution Advisory Council which successfully prepared and guided its program through the Legislature. He served on the Oregon Dispute Resolution Commission established by the Legislature.

He was the first chair of Dispute Resolution Committees of the Oregon State Bar and the Oregon Federal Bar Association. He was on panels of the American Arbitration Association and the Arbitration Service of Portland and now mediates primarily through U.S. Arbitration and Mediation in Portland.

He was the Co-Editor of the Oregon State Bar Publication on Arbitration and Mediation and published articles in that field and on the subject of Prosecutive Discretion.

From 1942 until 1945, he served in the Army Air Corps and after combat, in the Air Transport Command. He became a 1st Lieutenant as a navigator on B-17s in the 8th Air Force and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal with 3 clusters for that service.

A partial list of his community service includes: President of the City Club of Portland, Trustee of the Foundation for Public Broadcasting and Commissioner on the Metropolitan Human Relations Commission. He served on the boards of Nature Conservancy, Planned Parenthood and Actors Production Company. He was chair of the Policy Group of the Oregon Prison Overcrowding Project and headed the Special Review Commission to investigate Portland's Police Chief.

In 1949, he married Muriel Deutsch Lezak, Ph.D., Professor of Neurology, Psychiatry and Neurosurgery at Oregon Health Sciences University. They have three children and seven grandchildren.

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